During all phases of the performance and development process it will be necessary for team leaders to ask effective questions. To ask effective questions team leaders must consider what they want to find out and the most appropriate type of question to ask to gain this information.

Types of questions

The types of effective questions that team leaders ask can be grouped as follows:

Open questions

Open questions are useful for drawing out information and for encouraging team members’ involvement in discussions. They demand a fuller answer than ‘yes/no’. They usually begin with ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘how’ or ‘who’. They encourage team members to think and to give more complete answers. Open questions do not begin with ‘why’ as this puts the team member on the defensive and focuses attention on ‘causes’ or ‘reasons’.

Example: What happened at the meeting?
Closed questions

Closed questions ask for short, specific answers – usually ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They are useful in focusing a discussion, getting a commitment or gaining specific information.

Example: Do you need more clarification on (subject matter/topic)?

Probing questions

Probing questions are either open or closed questions. They encourage the team member to consider what is being discussed more deeply. It is important that probing is helpful in gaining a deeper understanding and is not seen as aggressive and accusing.

Example: What exactly did you mean by ‘XXX’?
Reflective questions

Reflective questions involve the questioner in reflecting back the views of the team member. These questions show that the questioner understands the team member’s position. They are used to clarify and summarise main points and allow further exploration of issues.

Example: How did you develop new skills through this project?

Hypothetical questions

Hypothetical questions are open questions that focus on what might occur in the future. They invite team members to speculate about their own and others’ thoughts, behaviours and feelings. They can be useful in helping team members to talk about fears and explore them in relative safety. They can also be valuable for helping to explore positive outcomes and to imagine acting differently.

Example: What are the possible pros and cons?

The following questions should be avoided in the workplace as they are generally not the most effective way to gain information and build understanding.
Leading questions

Leading questions communicate to the team member that a certain answer is expected or that there are beliefs, values or feelings that they should hold. Sometimes it is non-verbal cues that reinforce the message ‘You should think or feel this way’.

Example: Paul’s very efficient, don’t you think?

Multiple questions

Multiple questions contain several questions linked together. They confuse people because they don’t know which to answer.

Example: Why did you come in late to the meeting? Has it happened before? Are you aware of the procedure?


Examples of effective performance and development questioning:

To facilitate clarification of work priorities, expectations and focus:

· Can you explain a bit more about …?

· Can you give me a brief outline …?

· Can you provide an example of what you mean …?

· Can you help me understand what you mean when you say …?

· Do you believe that means …?

· How do you think …?

· How would you see...?

· So what do you see as the differences between … and …?

· Would you tell me a little more about…?

· I’d be interested in hearing more about…?

To assist with weighing options, goal setting and commiting to action:

· How will we plan for and use these ideas?

· What are the possible pros and cons?

· What are your goals and what are your next steps?

· What criteria can we use to make our decisions here?

· What recommendations do we now want to make?

· What action will we now take?’

· Here’s my synthesis of what I think we’ve (you’ve) said so far … what do you think?’

To provide ongoing support and focus on solutions:

· What is the actual concern we are trying to address?

· Have you considered …?

· What’s another way you might…?

· How else might we look at this?

· How does this contrast with or support our current approach?

· How would this affect …?

· I’m wondering if the problem is … how do others see it?

· What do you think about this idea?

· Am I making sense here?

· What can you add?

· In what I’ve shared, what gaps or inaccuracies do you see?

To promote reflection and guide review:

· Why do you think this is the case?

· What would have to change in order for…?

· What do you wish…?

· What would it look like if…?

· What do you think would happen if…?

· How was…different from…?

· What sort of an impact do you think…?

· What criteria did you use to…?

· When have you done/experienced something like this before?

· What might you see happening if…?

· How did you decide/determine/conclude…?

· What is your hunch about .…?

· What was your intention when .…?

· What do you assume to be true about .…?

· What is the connection between…and…?

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